Unix developer The SCO Group has filed a lawsuit against IBM Corp. charging it with misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition and other illegal actions related to IBM's Linux business. The suit seeks at least US$1 billion in damages.

A software vulnerability in the widely used Snort open-source intrusion detection system (IDS) software could allow an attacker to crash the Snort sensor or gain control of the host device on which the sensor runs.

Now that Linux boasts full-featured office suites, there's no reason it can't become a boon for small- and home-offices. Joe Barr compares two Optical Character Recognition packages -- Kooka & Gocr (free software) and OCR Shop (proprietary) -- that may be of special value in the legal ...

A security vulnerability in one of the most commonly used e-mail server software packages could have a wide ranging impact akin to the Microsoft SQL Server vulnerability that spawned the recent Slammer worm, according to an advisory published Monday by Internet Security Systems.

The first version of the Embedded Linux Consortium Platform Specification is hoped to aid application interoperability and spur interest in Linux development in the market for built-in systems software.

A group of free software advocates plan to protest at a Washington conference designed to promote open source and free software to governments because a representative from Microsoft is scheduled to speak there.

The name sounds like it might be a disease, but thanks to the German IT-Security Agency, KDE users will soon have a functioning open-source groupware application suite. Building on and integrating existing personal information management tools, the Kroupware project is beta testing a s...

Bill Gates outlined his optimistic vision of the coming digital decade in a speech to the Italian Senate as open source advocates in penguin suits protested his visit and called on the Italian government to legislate in favor of the use of open-source software by the state administrati...

Microsoft fell victim to a software vulnerability in one of its own products on Saturday, when the W32.Slammer worm infested host machines on the Redmond, Washington company's network, flooding that network with traffic.

The story of how BitKeeper became Linus Torvalds's (and many other kernel hackers') tool of choice in maintaining the Linux-development tree is worthy of a book. Here's the Cliffs Notes version of McVoy's contribution to Linux kernel development, BitKeeper, and countless hours of flami...

With the core prototype awaiting user reaction, Murphy examines consolidation and software pricing issues raised by readers. He finds Moore's Law has been working its magic on Unix software costs while only Nixon's Law seems to have applied to Microsoft's. (2,600 words)

Linux and Unix users and vendors beware: The SCO Group has hired high-voltage attorney David Boies, former antitrust Microsoft Corp. slayer, to look into possible violations of SCO's Unix and Linux intellectual property.

In a Thursday morning keynote address primarily devoted to a run-down of some notable IBM customer deployments of Linux, IBM software head Steve Mills affirmed that Linux is a large and growing revenue generator for his company.

In mid-2001, Morgan Stanley began overhauling its IT infrastructure, aiming at a new management architecture based on a thin-client model that would allow all data, applications and even operating systems to be hosted on network servers.

Evolution, a Ximian open-source groupware product for PCs running the Linux and Unix operating systems, is being more tightly integrated with Sun Microsystems's Sun ONE messaging and collaboration servers.

Bruce Perens, the former Linux/Open-Source strategist for HP, talks to Joe Barr about his work with the Cyber Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, his new Prentice Hall book series and his life since departing HP. (1,300 words)

At wit's end due to crowded shopping malls, miserable weather and that FAO Schwartz song that plays over and over and over until you lose your mind? Have no fear: an open-source, first-person-shooter game called Cube can help relieve some of your stress, and Joe Barr is here to tell yo...

Ever since his own jump to open source, Joe Barr has been hearing complaints from Linux newbies and never really bought into any of them. Until now. Joe points out three major obstacles for anyone making the jump to Linux and explains how the operating system's usability can improve. (...

The pluses for Mandrake installation are its speed and the absolute ease of obtaining and applying updates. It completely obliterates the Windows contenders in both the update category and the installation of attached devices. (1,900 words)

Version 3.75 of MainConcept's professional video-editing suite has some excellent, easy-to-use components. However, a few pesky bugs have our reviewer waiting for the upcoming release of MainActor 5 for Linux. (3,500 words)

Version 3.75 of MainConcept's professional video-editing suite has some excellent, easy-to-use components. However, a few pesky bugs have our reviewer waiting for the upcoming release of MainActor 5 for Linux. (3,500 words)

First, we compared the reinstallation of Windows 2000 to a fresh installation of Red Hat 7.3. Then we brought in a newbie to install Windows XP, on the theory that the latest Windows would be the state of the art in convenience and speed. In this installment, we compare all to the late...

What's up with Linux and open source at HP these days? No Linux or open source people have lost their jobs at HP. Given the current downtrend in the technology sector as a whole these days, that says a lot about HP's intentions. (1,700 words)

A snapped tendon, Klingon attacks and DHCP woes had Nick Petreley in the doledrums last week at his new home in North Carolina. Luckily, a SOHOware DSL/cable router was able to fix one of these problems. Can you guess which one? (1,100 words)

Joe Barr responds to reader feedback about his recent Red Hat vs. Win2000 install comparison and accepts the challenge to put Windows XP installation up to the test. Will Windows enthusiasts win out and force Joe to eat crow, or will Red Hat remain the quickest and easiest install test...

Cloud computing budgets worldwide are reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and no organization can survive long without some sort of cloud migration strategy. Each month brings new announcements, use cases, and success stories.